How Lion's Furphy cracked beer's toughest market

Patrick Durkin

Apr 11, 2019 — 12.15am

In the final scenes of The Founder, the 2016 film about how Ray Kroc turned the McDonald brothers' hamburger joint into the biggest franchise in the world, one of the brothers asks Kroc why he didn't simply steal everything after they showed him their secrets.

"It's not just the system, Dick, it's the name," Kroc (played by Michael Keaton) tells the brothers. "That glorious name McDonald's. It could be anything you want it to be. It's limitless, it's wide open, it sounds like America. Would you eat at a place named Kroc's?"

It is a story that resonates with the Furphy family, and over a beer at the Glenferries Hotel in Melbourne's Hawthorn, cousins Adam and Sam Furphy – who have never brewed a beer in their lives – tell AFR BOSS magazine how they came to lend their name and family history to Lion for the creation of Furphy Refreshing Ale.

Since its launch in 2014, Furphy Refreshing Ale has made its mark in Victoria and is among Melbourne's four most popular beers. Supplied

The Furphy company was founded in Victoria in 1864 by the cousins' great-great grandfather, John Furphy. One product was the Furphy water cart and tank, which became a popular piece of farming equipment in Victoria and came to national prominence in military camps in Melbourne and on World War I battlefields as places where soldiers gathered to swap gossip.

It is from here that "furphy" is believed to have entered the Australian lexicon as the word for a tall tale based on a kernel of truth, but embellished to the point of being unbelievable.

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"The drivers would pull up in the water cart [and] the soldiers would congregate around the back," Adam explains. "They don't know where they are going or when they are going off to war, rumours are flying everywhere, so this location became the source of stories. They'd say, 'Is that really true or did you hear that around the back of the Furphy?'

"The beer has given the expression a real shot in the arm. We've got this long and unique history which is well known to some people, but broadly probably not that well known."

A new "WTF" (What the Furphy) ad campaign planned for billboards around the country plays on the tall story idea, including "Toorak tractors" that need an agricultural licence and rumours of a Michelin three-star chip shop in Ballarat.

'And we like your name'

At the J. Furphy & Sons and Furphy Foundry site in Shepparton, the ffith-generation descendants of John Furphy respectively manufacture stainless-steel tanks that are used for food, dairy products, chemicals and beer. Clients include the Little Creatures brewery, which was bought by Lion in 2012.

James Brindley, managing director of Lion Beer Australia, says that's how the Furphy name came to the brewer's attention.

"One of the Little Creatures guys had seen the Furphy name as their supplier. It got mentioned to me and, being a bit older, I actually knew what furphy meant," he says. "So Brett Grebert [former head of craft beer at Lion] set up a meeting with the guys."

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Adam Furphy says he still remembers the phone call from Lion. "They said 'We love your tanks and we have got this new east coast business, but we really want a beer that speaks to the local ingredients we are using and a local footprint, and we like your name'," Adam recalls.

In 2014, as Lion was developing a plan to penetrate the parochial Melbourne beer market, the cousins met Brindley and other executives in Sydney.

The meeting resulted in what is believed to be a lucrative annual licensing deal with the proceeds supporting the Furphy family museum in Shepparton.

"The reason we liked it is that although they were from Shepparton and we were in Geelong, Victoria's been a tough market for Lion," Brindley says. "It is probably the most parochial beer market and we wanted to be local."

Lion went through a painful period in Victoria in the late 1990s when it bought about 50 Melbourne pubs in a reported $70 million spending spree. The plan was to force its Tooheys and Hahn beers onto Melbourne drinkers by making them the only beers on tap.

This writer still remembers the outcry from university students, and Lion was forced into an embarrassing fire-sale after the plan failed. By contrast, the results for Furphy have been spectacular. Volumes in Victoria are up 20 per cent on last year and it has become one of Melbourne's four most popular beers. Furphy was rolled out nationally in February last year and Lion's parent company, Kirin Holdings, says it enjoyed national sales growth of 125 per cent in the 2018 financial year.

Inclusive process

The Furphy cousins say they have been heavily involved throughout the creation of the beer.

"One of the very first meetings we had they showed us the logo and colours, and we said 'we reckon the blue one looks all right'," Sam says. "We went into tasting and they asked, 'What kind of beer would you like to drink?'

"I had just been hosting a year 8 parent night and the dads would throw in their craft beer and by the end of the night everyone was fishing around for the VBs and Carlton Drafts. Everyone was bringing these craft beers for show, but really drinking the classical beer. We both said it should be a 'sessional type' beer."

The Furphy water tanks came to national prominence in World War I as places where soldiers gathered to swap gossip. ​ John Woudstra

That "session ale", created by Warren Pawsey, the former head brewer at Little Creatures in Geelong, is described as clean and crisp with subtle fruit flavours inspired by the German kolsch style.

Adam says that when they met the Lion executives in Sydney, "we could see they weren't just going to pick up our name and chuck it on a beer label, which was our main concern".

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Sam agrees: "This notion of storytelling or tall stories, which goes to the brand essence of the beer – there was a really nice hook there, and we got that. The process was really inclusive and there was a meeting of minds.

"On the back of every stubbie or can there is a little story about the Furphy family from Shepparton. That's really nice, to see that respect."

Aura of authenticity

Tim Riches, strategy director at branding agency Principals, says the back story is partly about creating an aura of authenticity, which enhances a brand's ability to connect. He points to Bombay Sapphire gin, which was launched in 1986 but created a "heritage" harking back to the days of the British Raj.

Principals did a similar piece of work for Lion some years ago when it created the James Squire brand – an Australian equivalent to the Samuel Adams brand in the US, based on a historical figure who was an organiser of the Boston Tea Party and a brewer.

James Squire was a convict who is said to have been the first person to grow hops in Australia.

"That sense of history, of maker credibility with a roguish edge, fits well in beer," Riches says.

Part of the Furphy bar at the Little Creatures brewery in Geelong, Victoria. Supplied

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"I think that's a bit about 'bloke' culture and bit about beer culture as a drink that's typically consumed in social settings and in a group.

"Furphy is very similar. It puts a story behind the brand and has a nice double meaning tapping into the bullshitty banter of beer culture. I also think it does it without being too blokey. The tonality of the brand is well judged."

Riches says it also plays to Victoria's parochialism.

"It feels as if it's been around for ages, a bit like a Coopers-esque response to a VB or Melbourne Bitter with its Geelong credentials," Riches says.

"Tooheys and XXXX never really cut through in Victoria, being seen as interstate beers, but the uptake of Furphy seems to have been very swift."

Stainless-steel tanks at the Little Creatures brewery in Geelong that were made at the J. Furphy & Sons foundry in Shepparton. Supplied